GeekGirlCon Blog

A Day of Love and Dancing: The 2014 Seattle Pride Parade

Ever since I attended my very first Pride festival years ago in Minneapolis, Minnesota, walking in a Pride parade has been something I wanted to do. Supporting love in such an open and spectacular fashion feels important on multiple levels. The event is filled with people from all walks of life, progressive as can be, and symbolic of acceptance of others’ lifestyles. To me, it’s a gorgeous way to commemorate the work done each year in the fight for equal rights, and to celebrate how far we’ve come.

Oh, and there’s dancing. Such dancing!

When I discovered it would be possible for me to join the Seattle Pride parade this year, I was beside myself. Boogieing through the heart of the Emerald City with GeekGirlCon staff members, volunteers, and community — not to mention hundreds of thousands of other revelers — was an absolute dream come true.

And have I mentioned yet that our “approved vehicle” for the parade was a Dalek?

Shaylee Bell, the builder of Dalek Clara, was there with the fantastic robot, creating waves of photo-happy merrymakers and shrieks of “Exterminate!” Seeing people of all genders and sexual identities come together and absolutely geek out was almost too much for me. Several times, tears of pure joy and gratitude trickled from my eyes. I just kept thinking about GeekGirlCon’s values, especially the one listed at number five:

“We are the world.

GeekGirlCon embraces all types of people. PERIOD. There is no way to list all the subsets of folks that now or in the future will make up the body of GeekGirlCon. ALL: ages, gender identities, sexual orientations, sexual preferences, sizes, abilities, ethnicities, nationalities, races, creeds, religions, familial statuses, alien species, earth species, education levels, science specializations, operating system preferences, fandoms, etc., are welcome.”

If that isn’t beautiful, I don’t know what is. Hope to see you all there again next year — same bat-time, same bat-channel. Cheers to the next twelve months of working for equal rights and enjoying pure pride!